Mord'A'Stigmata - Our Hearts Slow Down (2015)

After being quite intrigued by the band’s 2011 release “Antimatter”, this band released the lukewarm “Ansia” back in 2013. Fast forward two years, now we have their latest EP “Our Hearts Slow Down” which features three songs and around 30 minutes of Post-Metal/Post-Black Metal songs. Not too much better than their 2013 release, this album sees the band move away almost entirely from their Avant-garde influences into the fertile Post-Metal/Post-Black Metal realm with three so-so songs.

Opening with the hypnotic “The Mantra of Anguish”, we are presented with very powerful riffs and a bleak landscape. The band keeps things simple by attacking the listener with ravaging guitars and spacey drum. There are some brilliant melodic passages that make the track more interesting, but still fails to fully impress. Things get a bit more hectic and enjoyable with the chaotic “Those Above” and its high-intensity drums. The riffing in parts is more on the traditional Black Metal side, making this track quite crushing and powerful.

Closing with the instrumental “Our Hearts Slow Down”, we have a mixture of straight up Melodic Metal with some Jazzy elements and some Black Metal sprinkles. Leaving the listener hanging to dry this track serves no purpose other than filling in some 5 minutes of album time. We are quite puzzled as to why this made it into the release.

Overall, “Our Hearts Slow Down” is one amusing release to hear, but not the best from the band. There are definitely some interesting ideas here and there, making it worth the price of admission, but there are also tons of other releases in 2015 that are more worthy of your attention. We hope the band gets the stuff in order and produce more imaginative music in the future.

Label: Pagan Records

Release: September 25th, 2015

Genre: Post-Metal/Post-Black Metal

Country: Poland